Tristen Rowe shares Cañon Exploratory School opinion

Fourth-grader calls it the 'best school in the world'

Nearly a year ago, the Cañon City School Board heard public input regarding the potential closure of one or more of the district's schools.

Tristen Rowe was the first to speak to the board during a March 2012 public meeting, asking the board to leave the former Madison Exploratory School open.

Tristen, now a fourth-grader at Cañon Exploratory School, spoke again to the board Monday during its regular meeting. He shared his feelings on his new school that was a consolidation of Madison Exploratory School and Skyline Elementary School.

"It's the same thing as Madison," he said. "In my personal opinion, I think it's the best school in the world. Yes, I like the small community, but to make it bigger for more kids to come is awesome -- it's such a great school."

He said he likes the school's cafeteria, library and gymnasium.

With a full semester under their belts, staff, students and parents of CES also shared their opinions on the school that officially opened its doors in August 2012.

Principal Beth Gaffney said the school grew from 30 to 90 students in the first three years after it opened in 1992. Today, there are 270 students broken up into four "communities."

"The foundation is still the core exploratory concepts," she said. "Project-based learning, multiple intelligence theory, multi-age instruction and choice theory -- wrapped up into what I call CARE.

"Community, Achievement, Respect and Responsibility and Exploration."

Wanda O'Dell spoke about her first-grader's success at the new school.

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"My child has been a totally different kid," she said. "It's been amazing. I don't have to fight him to go to school on a daily basis. Last year, in kindergarten, I was fighting him every day. He gets choices here, and he feels like he is in control of what he can do, which is huge for my son.

"I am so grateful that the school district has decided to open it up. I know some people were very hesitant in changing and closing down schools, but this was an excellent decision."

Also Monday, Shaun Kohl, chief information officer for the district gave a summary on a recent visit to the Littleton School District to observe their security systems and to bring ideas back to the district.

"We can do a lot of things that aren't too expensive," he said. "They try to utilize as much of their technology as much as they could to try to put some practices in place."

The middle and high schools in the Littleton district are on 24-hour lock out, and visitors are required to use call boxes at the front entrances. They also utilize a wireless alarm system.

"One of the things that we have already done is set up the ability to send text messages to all of our administrators on cell phones so that we can notify district administrators when something is happening and a school is going to be on a lock down or lock out," he said. "It helps prepare the other schools to think ahead a little more and we're looking to update some of the radio systems."

Kohl said the district will continue to work with the Cañon City Police Department to implement security practices, and he is looking at grant systems to help with equipment and training.

In other business, the board and administrators thanked Randal Mitchell of the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the donation of 200 computer stations to replace those that are outdated.

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